Politics this week

One week on

Reuters

Thousands of troops of the American-led coalition swept into Iraq from Kuwait while missiles and bombs aimed at military and government targets rained down on Baghdad and other strategically important cities in an attempt to “shock and awe” the Iraqi regime. America claimed precision targeting; Iraq claimed civilian losses.

Rapid advances through the desert brought American tanks to within around 50 miles of Baghdad to confront the bulk of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard, dug in around the capital. Meanwhile, other coalition forces encountered sporadic “pockets of resistance” from regular army and militia forces in towns along the route of advance. Coalition forces suffered few casualties; many Iraqi combatants surrendered or abandoned the fight. American and British dead number around 50.

Umm Qasr, Iraq's main port and a vital conduit for humanitarian aid, was secured after several days of guerrilla attacks by Iraqi forces. British troops surrounded Basra, Iraq's second city but a hoped-for uprising by the local Shia Muslim population failed to materialise. Other coalition forces captured airfields in western Iraq and were airlifted into Iraqi Kurdistan, north of Baghdad.

Reports that Saddam had been killed in early air raids seemed false, but doubts were raised about the authenticity of television appearances of characteristic defiance. America protested as Iraq paraded and interviewed prisoners-of-war on television.

Donald Rumsfeld, America's secretary of defence, cautioned Americans that the war was nearer its beginning than its end. Meanwhile, President George Bush met Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister, to discuss rebuilding post-war Iraq. Mr Blair urged a big role for the UN.

The costs of war

The Senate voted to halve George Bush's proposed $726 billion tax cut, which the House had earlier passed in full. The two chambers will now haggle over the differences. Several moderate Republican senators sided with Democrats worried about the worsening fiscal outlook: Mr Bush has sent Congress a bill requesting an initial $75 billion to pay for the war in Iraq.

Oil-fired protest

The Nigerian army attempted to quell ethnic fighting in the oil-rich Niger delta. Oil firms evacuated their staff and cut Nigeria's output by nearly 40%. An uneasy truce failed to tempt oil companies to return.

In the Central African Republic, François Bozizé, the coup leaderand self-proclaimed president, appointed a prime minister who promised to form a clean government for the country.

Europe's “hard core”?

Belgium suggested the creation of a “hard core” of European Union countries, starting with itself, France and Germany, to form a defence club distinct from NATO. The Belgian implication was that Britain is too close to America and would not be part of the new group. The idea is due for discussion on April 29th.

Fraud charges were filed in Belgium against Edith Cresson, a French member of the European Commission in the late 1990s.

AP

Serb police arrested the deputy commander of a special police unit, Zvezdan Jovanovic, and charged him with murdering Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's prime minister, on March 12th. Police claimed he was an extreme nationalist with connections to the criminal underworld.

In the Spanish region of Catalonia, the ruling Catalan-nationalist coalition, Convergence and Union, put forward plans to revise the region's constitution, giving it far more self-government.

Boris Berezovsky, a Russian super-tycoon, was arrested and then freed on bail in London. The Russian authorities asked for his extradition, accusing him of a fraud involving the Logovaz car company to the tune of $1.9 billion.

Opinion polls showed Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, nine points ahead of the Christian Democrats' leader, Angela Merkel. Last November, not two months after he won re-election, he was ten behind. Why the change? Iraq, mostly.

The North's cold shoulder

North Korea cut one of its few contacts with the United States when it withdrew from regular talks with American officers at Panmunjom, on the border with South Korea. The North increased its military spending “to put all the people under arms and turn the whole country into a fortress”, according to its finance minister. Japan prepared to fire two satellites into orbit to keep a watch on North Korea.

Guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which seeks a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, attacked a predominantly Christian village and killed five civilians. Five rebels were shot dead by the villagers.

The number of deaths from SARS, a type of pneumonia that has spread from China, rose to more than 50 worldwide. Singapore closed its schools until April 6th after its first death from the disease.

Down in the jungle

A plane carrying three Americans crashed in jungle in Colombia. They had been searching for three other Americans taken hostage by FARC guerrillas six weeks ago after their plane had crashed while surveying drug crops.

A second judge was murdered in ten days in Brazil, apparently by a criminal gang.

In Cuba, a crackdown on opponents of President Fidel Castro's communist regime continued. Some 80 dissidents have been arrested. They stand accused of conspiring with the top American diplomat on the island.